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30 November 2013

My New Name AMA Avidar

Shabbat shalom everyone,

Leaving Ghana tomorrow, but before I leave I must write you.

Avi, Freimpong (Patrick's friend, Patrick is our wonderful
business partner in Ghana) and myself are celebrating Shabbat with a beer (
club beer – similar to light Belgien beer which I really like) at the poolside
of the Erata Hotel in Accra (marvelous wifi- my obsession in Africa), listening to a
live band singing Bob Marley – "I want to love you"

So where were we in the last 2 days, or where were we not…..
we traveled from Accra to Tarkwa, to Kumasi (the largest city in Ghana) to
Bogoso and then Briem North (rural area) and back to Accra. Except for one flight we drove most of the way, or rather Patrick our partner was kind
enough to drive, around 4-5 hours from each destination to the next, it was
quite a hard trip, with terrible roads.

Patrick a Ghanaian business man from the Ashanti area, that
made it on his own, by identifying a need and finding the solutions for it. Good
on you Patrick!!!!

We met and visited several mining companies and the funny
thing is that right before each mine compound the road is awful, due to political
issues of who is in charge of the road and who should construct it and in the
end, no one does and we get to feel the experience in our aching bones. But for
all purposes the way was worth it, we had some good meetings, got to understand
the challenges of the mining areas and the villages surrounding them. We also met honoranble Paul the head of the district, who shared with us some of the challenges he faces and once again we trully hope we can bring some greta solutions to the area and change a challenge into a solution.

Our intention is to bring some good rural development
platforms (our VIC model- the village income center, which we have developed in
Nkuv, if you remember from April) .

So what about the name, Ama means born on Saturday, in Ghana
people get the name of the day they were born in, there are 7 names for men and
7 for women, I was born on Saturday, therefore AMA Avidar. By the way, Kofi (Anan)
is a Friday born.

Write you soon, tomorrow flying to Cameroon - for the last leg of the race.....

the poolside band

eating cocanut

eating again at mining compay, looks like a kibbutz dinning room

the hotel room at Tarkwa, - longji hotel, the new chinese hotel, beautiful rooms, good service decent price and everything imported from China

some beaitiful scienery on the road

Patrick, and Kofi a leading reporter in Ghana

the artisine miners, mining without a license and no regulatroy control, they threw mud at us for taking their picture